What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[keirarts]

Birth of the living dead.

Nothing really new is added to what I already knew about the film. However, Birth is still worth a look as it remains an affectionate tribute to one of the most radical horror movies ever made.

Wrong.

Errm... From the director of Rubber comes a metaphysical and often surreal tale of an everyday schlub who has lost his dog. It opens with nonchalant firemen standing around, one drops his pants to have a shit in the middle of the road, all the while a van is burning long into the night, the film then gets progressively weirder to a point where I'm having a hard time categorising it. I really need to watch this a few more times. It's from the maker of RUBBER and makes that film look frankly normal.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Wrong.

Errm... From the director of Rubber comes a metaphysical and often surreal tale of an everyday schlub who has lost his dog. It opens with nonchalant firemen standing around, one drops his pants to have a shit in the middle of the road, all the while a van is burning long into the night, the film then gets progressively weirder to a point where I'm having a hard time categorising it. I really need to watch this a few more times. It's from the maker of RUBBER and makes that film look frankly normal.

I've been meaning to see this for a while now. You review just makes me want to see it all the more.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by keirarts

Wrong.

Errm... From the director of Rubber comes a metaphysical and often surreal tale of an everyday schlub who has lost his dog. It opens with nonchalant firemen standing around, one drops his pants to have a shit in the middle of the road, all the while a van is burning long into the night, the film then gets progressively weirder to a point where I'm having a hard time categorising it. I really need to watch this a few more times. It's from the maker of RUBBER and makes that film look frankly normal.

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

I've been meaning to see this for a while now. You review just makes me want to see it all the more.

I've also intended to buy it or rent it for quite a while, so imagine my disappointment when I have just looks and found it isn't available to rent from Lovefilm or stream via Netflix.

Looks like a (fairly) blind buy is the only way to go.

[J Harker]

So last night we went down to the Millennium Centre to watch a screening of Jean Epsteins 1928 adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher accompanied by a live orchestra. A very surreal film that is wildly different in story to Corman/Price's brilliant version. This was wildly surreal in places with floating coffins and some sort of evil mirror. There seemed to be very few title cards explaining what was going on either which added to the surrealism. Some very impressive imagery and techniques for a film of this age though and worth a watch if you like this sort of thing.

[Handyman Joe]

Road House (1948) - Ida Lupino bowling a strike in hot pants (and crooning big style at the piano), Richard Widmark a giggly control freak psycho (natch), Cornell Wilde fighting a giant redneck in a bar - what's not to love here?

Leave Her to Heaven - A oxymoronic rarity, film noir in blazing technicolor. Wilde again über the sufferance of Gene Tierney, her of the adorable toothy grin. Not adorable here right enough - a bad bad lady (poor little Danny!). Could've done without Vincent Prices hammy courtroom cameo at the end but pretty good stuff (should be - it was the 1945 Oscar winner).

Cape Fear (1962) - Honestly? Disappointing. Pace felt sludgy, Mitchum's trademark laconic persona just not right for the role - I needed pent up fury not a drawl. A rare occasion this - I actually prefer the remake (for all that's not perfect either)

Captain America Winter Soldier - I loved it, but, for me, these climactic CGI orgies of destruction are beginning to blur into each other. This one and Guardians of the Galaxy for example are pretty much identical. Humungous aircraft being exploded. There must be another way to wrap these up - please.

The Changes (TV Series) - stumbled upon this (must've missed it by 2/3 years back in the day) via a loan - devoured it in no time which is a helluva achievment for a 40 year old kids series (I mean the makers, not me watching it!). Accents are a bit posh but who cares when you've villains like Davy the Witchfinder general! Recommended and not just for nostalgic reasons.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I've also intended to buy it or rent it for quite a while, so imagine my disappointment when I have just looks and found it isn't available to rent from Lovefilm or stream via Netflix.

Looks like a (fairly) blind buy is the only way to go.

It's available on Drafthouse blu-ray. Its dear on marketplace but I shopped around on amazon.com and got it off a US seller fairly cheap.

Personally it's worth it for William Fichtner who manages to really bring the crazy to a film thats nuts to begin with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwiwareLXzQ

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT - The 2008 remake, which I can't imagine I've reviewed before here as I haven't seen it since it first hit the streets. I liked it then and I still like it now - it's a film which doesn't really sanitise its notorious predecessor, at least when it comes to graphic brutality and general awfulness. It doesn't take the existing storyline or ideas anywhere interesting or new, but for me it stands out from the sometimes fallow crop of late noughties revamps by sticking with the vicious approach of the original, at least in part. There were some scenes which, although they might not have stretched the '18' rating too far technically, still seemed really harsh, especially for a mainstream movie - principally, the girls' ordeal in the woods at the hands of Krug et al. This intensity doesn't necessarily dominate the film as a whole, but it still manages to be pretty much in yer face, especially after the midsection lull. Comparisons are inevitable when icons like LHOTL are remade, and the results are often found wanting by fans who are still captivated by the mystique of the old stuff. I get around this by separating original and remake / adaption / reinterpretation as much as possible - this goes for novel-to-film translations, too ('The Naked Lunch' is great as either book or film, but the two work on such different levels that they really only end up sharing a title). So it is with 'The Last House On The Left', which, in its most recent incarnation, is a slick latter day thriller with none of the rawness (in terms of filmmaking) of the original, but also, if I am going to be a bit negative and get into direct comparisons a little, personally speaking the remake falls down because the depressing nihilism and the arguable subversion of the 1972 release are absent - Craven's film, I think, showed the bourgeois family unit as inherently sadistic and hostile whereas here the typical revenge thriller dynamic is celebrated more. But, two different films made in very different times. So, if you can get your head round a version of LHOTL having a 'happy' ending of sorts, you'll probably get down with this enjoyable and sometimes commendably gruelling re-jig. I was a little bit haunted by one of the last scenes, though - can a microwave really do that to someone's head? Or have I got that wrong?

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

I also enjoyed TLHOTL remake for what it was. I'm not a huge fan of the original so having no 'sacred cow' to slaughter may have been one of the contributing factors to this... but I do agree with your points regarding sanitisation and it maintaining an air of viciousness throughout despite its approach to the 'revenge' aspect, which at times comes across almost as gleeful hubris.

[PaulD]

I've been thinking about revisiting the LTOTL remake recently although after watching Breaking Bad I'm worried about how odd it'll seem

[Frankenhooker]

The LHOTL remake is better than most, its certainly more mean spirited than most remakes, but it nails its colours to the mast and it doesn't ask as many questions as Craven's film.

I am a big fan of the original, ramshackle cops and all, I just thought there was something really off with it. The remake was nasty, but lacked that anarchistic edge.